Germany will not leave the door open for a possible return to using nuclear power now or in the future, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday (2 September).

Responding to a suggestion from members of his own governing coalition that the country should not rule out restarting its shuttered reactors, Scholz told radio station Deutschlandfunk that “nuclear energy is over” and the issue is “a dead horse” in Germany.

“The fact is that with the end of the use of nuclear power, dismantling has also begun” at the power stations that have been closed down, he said. “Any talk of resuming the use of atomic energy would imply building new power stations,” Scholz argued.